Chapter 6

ARIA’S POV

Avoidance should be an Olympic sport. If it were, I’d have gold by noon.

I left my last lecture five minutes early, slipped out through the side stairwell instead of the main hall, and took the long route behind the science building just to avoid the quad. Every corner I turned felt like a potential ambush.

Whispers followed me anyway. They didn’t need to see me to talk about me. I kept walking. Head down. AirPods in. Music off.

The parking lot came into view, and I exhaled slowly. If I could just make it to the curb where Julian said he’d pick me up, I could survive the day.

Then I heard my name. “Aria!” Of course. I didn’t turn around. “Aria, please.” The word please made me pause despite myself. Stupid heart. Stupid history.

I turned slowly. Luca looked wrecked.

Not the artfully messy, campus golden boy version of wrecked. Actually wrecked. Dark circles under his eyes. Jaw tight. Shoulders slumped like something inside him had finally cracked.

He walked toward me carefully, like I was a wild animal he didn’t want to spook. “Can we just talk? Five minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”

“You’ve had ten years,” I replied evenly. He flinched.

“I know. I know I screwed up. I was selfish. I thought—you were always there, Aria. You were solid. I didn’t think I had to fight for you.”

“That’s the problem,” I said quietly. “You never did.”

He ran a hand through his hair, pacing once before stopping in front of me. “Last night was a mistake.” I stared at him.

“You didn’t seem confused,” I said.

His jaw flexed. “Serena doesn’t mean anything.”

The irony almost made me laugh. “But I do?” I asked.

“Yes!” he burst out. “You always have.” I felt something inside me tremble and then harden.

“Then why did I have to listen to you with her?” I asked. “Why did I have to sit there and pretend I wasn’t dying inside?”

He swallowed hard. “I was distracted,” he repeated, desperate now. “The pressure, the team, my dad breathing down my neck about law school. I was just… not thinking straight.”

“Ten years, Luca,” I said softly. “You’ve been ‘not thinking straight’ for ten years.” His expression shifted then. Less pleading. More calculating.

“And now what?” he said. “You’re thinking straight? By moving in with Julian Vance?”

There it was. He stepped closer. “Do you even know who that guy is? You think he’s helping you out of the goodness of his heart? Aria, Julian doesn’t do charity. He doesn’t breathe without a reason.”

My stomach twisted. “He’s manipulative,” Luca continued. “Everything he does is strategic. You’re a move to him. A statement. He probably gets off on messing with me.”

“That’s rich,” I muttered.

“I’m serious,” he pressed. “He doesn’t care about you. He cares about control. You think it’s a coincidence he made a whole scene this morning? He wanted people to see.”

My chest tightened. Because part of me knew that was true. Julian had wanted them to see. “But at least he didn’t humiliate me,” I shot back.

Luca’s eyes darkened. “You’re making a mistake,” he said quietly. “He’s not safe.”

“And you are?” I asked. Silence. Then, a low, familiar engine cut through the tension. Every nerve in my body snapped to attention. Julian’s car turned into the parking lot.

Of course he was right on time. Like always.

Students immediately slowed their steps. Heads turned. Phones subtly lifted. A small crowd was already forming near the edge of the lot.

And Serena was there. Standing near the entrance with two of her sorority friends, arms crossed, expression thunderous. This was becoming a show.

Luca noticed the car too. His posture stiffened. “See?” he muttered. “Right on cue.” The car rolled closer. Closer.

I could feel it, the narrative forming in real time.

Scholarship girl caught between two campus elites.

Poor Aria. Indecisive Aria. Desperate Aria. No. Not today.

I was done being the girl people felt sorry for. I stepped forward. “Aria, don’t,” Luca warned, reaching for my arm. But this time, I didn’t step back.

I walked straight toward the car. Julian slowed, confusion flickering across his face for half a second before the mask slipped back into place. He stopped directly in front of me.

The window rolled down. “You’re early,” he said calmly.

Behind me, I heard Luca move. “Aria, this is stupid…” His fingers brushed my wrist. That was it. Something inside me snapped. I opened the passenger door.

And instead of sliding in, I leaned across the console, grabbed Julian by the collar of his hoodie and kissed him. Gasps exploded around us. For half a second, Julian froze.

Just long enough for me to register the shock in his body. Then, he moved. His hand came up, sliding into my hair, gripping, not painfully, but firmly. Possessively.

He kissed me back. Not soft. Not hesitant. Deep. Demanding. Like he’d been waiting. The world tilted. My lungs forgot how to function. This was supposed to be strategic. A statement. A weapon.

But Julian didn’t kiss like a man playing a game.

He kissed like a man claiming something he already believed was his.

His other hand slid to my waist, pulling me fully into the car, chest to chest across the center console. My knees hit the seat. My fingers tightened in his hoodie. Heat flooded through me so fast it made my head spin.

The parking lot disappeared. The crowd disappeared. There was only the pressure of his mouth, the controlled hunger in the way he angled his head, the quiet, dangerous intensity vibrating beneath his restraint.

I made a small, involuntary sound against his lips.

That seemed to snap him back. He pulled away slowly. Too slowly. His gray-blue eyes were darker than I’d ever seen them.

Not confused. Not amused. Possessive. His thumb brushed once against my jaw before he released me. The silence in the parking lot was deafening.

Julian looked past me. Straight at Luca. His expression shifted into something lethal. He stepped out of the car, closing the distance with unhurried confidence.

Luca stood his ground, but I saw it, the hesitation.

Julian stopped just close enough to make the message clear. “The lady said to leave her alone,” he said evenly.

Each word landed like a controlled detonation. “Leave. Her. Alone.” A beat. “Don’t make me force you to.” No shouting. No theatrics. Just certainty.

Luca’s fists clenched. But he didn’t move. Julian held his gaze a second longer, then turned away like Luca wasn’t worth another second of oxygen.

He walked back to the driver’s seat. Got in. And without another word, he drove off. Fast. The campus blurred past the windows. My heart was still racing. My lips were still tingling.

My brain was still trying to process what had just happened. I had kissed him to get back at Luca. That was the plan. But the way Julian had kissed me back?

That hadn’t been part of it. Silence filled the car. Thick. Charged. After a full minute, he spoke. “Was that tactical,” he asked calmly, eyes on the road, “or should I start worrying about my self-control?”

I swallowed. “I needed him to stop,” I said. A muscle ticked in his jaw.

“He’ll stop,” Julian replied quietly. There was something in his tone that made my stomach flip again. Not relief. Not satisfaction. Promise.

I turned to look at him. “Julian…” He glanced at me briefly. And for the first time since I’d met him, the mask was gone. What was underneath wasn’t indifference.

It wasn't a strategy. It was something far more dangerous. “I don’t do things halfway, Aria,” he said softly. My pulse stuttered.

And for the first time since I’d moved into his guest suite, I realized I might have just started something I wasn’t prepared to finish.